The Red Sculpture is one of the living sculptures performances by Gilbert and George. Dressed in the same way, the artists dyed their faces and hands red and, during the performance (an hour and a half), moved in front of visitors, approaching and moving away from each other with studied gestures.

Gilbert was born Gilbert Proesch and comes from a small village in the Dolomites, George was born George Passmore in Plymouth. In the late 1960s, at the beginning of their career, in the iconoclastic spirit of the times, they rejected sculpture and surnames, and decided to turn themselves into a living work of art. They have remained one ever since, their peculiarities becoming a kind of signature, as instantly identifiable as the pictures they make. Initially, though, they called themselves 'The Singing Sculpture', and specialised in a deadpan version of 'Underneath the Arches', which they delivered standing still, side by side in their suits, which has since become their uniform, their hands and faces painted bronze.

Gilbert and George have been together, in art and in life, for over 40 years, staying abreast of the times by making art that, as George once put it, 'is both old and young'. They first entered mainstream consciousness fleetingly in 1977 when their show 'Dirty Words Pictures' briefly made headlines with its blend of smut and shock tactics. Since then they have exhibited worldwide in all major institutions and received countless awards and honours – including the Turner Prize in 1986.

In 2023 the duo have further cemented their association with the community of the East End of London with the opening of The Gilbert and George Centre in Spitalfields, a cultural institution for the study of their art.